This is an extra chapter portraying the role of Indonesian penal unit in reclaiming India in third person point of view.

...

"Thanks to your deeds so far, that the entire alliance had seen you as a worthy and valid military force fighting for liberty in Asia. Or at least what rumors out there are saying. But that's all BS. As remember, the only reason you're here is to redeem yourself from your crimes by carrying out missions."

"And then we got medals of our own" one convict, Major Heru Suryawan, callsign "Whisker" exclaimed with glee.

Once a Lieutenant Colonel and an Operations Officer of the 3rd Squadron, he was convicted for embezzlement and money laundering.

"Guards!" shouted the base and the overall unit commander, Colonel Eddy Purnama, nicknamed "Reformer".

"Get him out of my sight." he commanded the MPs inside the room before pointed his finger at Major Heru. "5 days in solitary, Whisker!"

Heru was dragged out from the room, then Purnama continued his briefing.

"Where I left off? Well. In this mission, you'll go into the UCC occupied territory of India. Here, Siachen Glacier, in Eastern Karakoram range of the Himalayas. The UCC had installed radar sites in the vicinity of the glacier. And it's linked to a swarm of drones. This mission is critical as the Indians are going to launch an assault operation to regain control of the glacier. So, you'll destroy those radar sites and weaken those drones.

"As it's important, the enemy won't go down without a fight. The area is watched over by the recently deployed Caliphate high-altitude stratospheric balloon satellites, if you got discovered, expect a barrage of SAMs aimed at you. Those missiles can lock on stealth fighters, so, unless you've already arranged your funerals, you must use the clouds and maneuver for cover around the sides and base of the mountains. Use the clouds to hide from the balloon, and you just might have a chance to shake off those missiles. If you have a missile aimed on you, head to the clouds and pray."

"Either you got hit by SAM or crash into the rocks. That much freedom I will give, and that's what I'll explain to your families if such thing happen. Don't worry, they won't be discriminated afterwards."

"You will have another penal unit as your ally in this mission; the Indian No. 404 Squadron. Their callsign will be 'Dumpster'. And we have coordinated with the Indians about the command arrangement for you lot, and should one of you try to disobey orders, solitary and even firing squad awaits you. Do you understand??"

"Yes, sir."

"Now gear up, you morons! We have a job to do!"

........................................................................................

"The enemy is watching up above, so stay in the clouds to keep yourself hidden!"

"Well, talk about a narrow flying space. Just like our training in Papua, Sipir." said Lt. Doni.

"Padlock 2-4, your choice are only this or solitary. Now, begin the operation!"

"Will comply."

Then the radios went on with an announcement from an Indian-accented English.

"This is AWACS Steel Cage, We're approaching from the southeast, bearing 230 below the clouds. Requesting datalink connection, over"

"Understood Steel Cage, get your bastards as soon as you can!" replied Sipir to the Indian controller.

"They must be the 404" 'Charge' muttered.

Charge's element leader reported, "Padlock 2-3 to Sipir, I got reading on one UCC radar site, engaging."

He was sent to the 13th after been caught in possession of 1 ton worth of crystal meth which we in Indonesia called it shabu or sabu-sabu. Instead of a possible execution by hanging as the maximum prescribed penalty, the military court sent him to the 13th.

"Padlock 2-4 to 2-3, I'll cover you."

"Padlock 2-4, granted, you cover 2-3 from enemy aircraft while he takes out the radar and AD sites!"

Doni banked left while Sonny fired his air-to-ground missiles into the site and he soon caught two contacts which the AEW quickly identified as a pair of Caliphate Rafales approaching his lead. Then, he rolled down into the clouds, dodging two SAMs in the process.

"Padlock 2-3, Fox 2!" reported Doni. "Splash one bandit."

The second enemy Rafale was heavily damaged and before it could bug out from the battlefield it's engines gave up, the pilot managed to bail out in the last minute before the craft slammed into the mountain.

"Splash two." he called again.

"First radar site is offline.."

"Second radar site is offline. That's I want to see from you bastards. And for 2-3, cut your unnecessary chatter and do the job!" called the man behind callsign 'Sipir', Lieutenant Colonel Maruli Simamora.

"What if the radar wasn't under the cloud?" Doni's headset caught on the Indian's frequency, as an Indian penal pilot was asking his controller.

"Take it out, and if you still want to live dive into the cloud ASAP" answered Steel Cage.

"2-3, let's change turn. I'll use my AGM for the next site."

"Understood. Even if we're gonna die here.. the only comfort we have is that we die a free man." replied Sonny at the younger pilot.

Doni climbed into one of the mountains' slope and gained lock at one radar site and in a "Magnum" call knocked it out, just in time as SAM began to track at him. He continue his climb then executed a rapid dive into the cloud-covered area way below.. and into an anti-air gun that he soon destroyed with his 25mm cannon.

"Padlock 2-4, third radar site destroyed."

"3-1, Fox two!"

"2-3, Fox two!"

As he looked for the other radar site while passing through one of the glaciers, the Indians reported they had knocked out two more radar sites.

"Sipir to Padlock callsign, not all the enemy radars have been knocked out, and the high-altitude balloon is still operational."

"They sure are not making things easy for us" said Captain Ahmad "Leaflet", flying as Padlock 2-1 dryly.

"Our job is dangerous, but it's much better than running through a minefield in a blindfold" stated Lt. Baswedan, now flying as Padlock 2-2.

"Be advised, lead. I've got two Rafales, locked, Fox three!"

Meanwhile Padlock 3-2, 1st Lieutenant Joseph Limanto, callsign 'Scale' went in air in a sneer. "How naive you're, Crown. This mission is exactly like running blind through a minefield."

"All of you cut it out!" commanded AWACS Sipir. "If you have a time for senseless chatting means you'll spend the entire war here while your comrades out there get every medals on the book!"

"Well.. I've got my hand on a password and I gonna tell you after this, Sipir" said Lt. Joseph again. "In war, any intel could mean life or death, and you know it better."

"I doubt you understand what you saying, Padlock 3-2. However.. you got the point." the AWACS replied.

The radio then crackled again with report from the 1st flight. "Padlock 1-3 reporting another radar site has been taken out. That's gonna leave the mark"

"Missile.. missile"

"Pull up, pull up!" The ground proximity system went to life as Doni and Sonny went much lower to dodge yet another SAM launched at them. He then reached another summit and decide to expend his last AGM on the radar site straight in front of the pair.

"Magnum"

"Sipir to all units, Target destroyed. That's a good hospitality you showed there. All radar sites has been destroyed, but continue to destroy the rest of the ground targets!"

"Missile incoming, head into the clouds!" Doni warned his leader which followed him into the cloud as two SAM were targeting them. Meanwhile, the AWACS relayed new updates about three more target destruction by another fellow convict.

"Padlock 1-2, AA missile site destroyed.. Padlock 1-4, AA gun destroyed.. Padlock 2-2, enemy command bunker is now unusable.."

"The Indians had taken the brunt of the decoying part of the job, so far.." stated Lt. Baswedan.

"And without any loss." Doni answered the naval officer.

"All targets destroyed.." called AWACS Sipir. Meanwhile the Indian counterpart also piped in "... that will definitely stop the missile guidance. The assault force is on their way and will arrive on AO in 10 minutes. All units, fly above the cloud now!"

"I don't think we can head home yet." said an Indian.

"Wait a minute, we have unknown inbound." said the AWACS. "This is Indonesian Air Force 13th Independent Squadron, state your affiliations!"

"...This is the Indian Air Force, repeat, this is the Indian Air Force Number 404 Squadron. To unidentified aircraft, state your intentions, this is an order!"

"...Nobody from joint forces command that told me they were so many nearby. Incoming allied fighters, please respond and state your intentions!"

"Who the hell are they?" asked Doni to his lead. Their plane's radar indicated an allied formation, tagged as friendly Indian HAL Tejases but the controllers can't sure about the authenticity of their signals.

"The regular force, in which I mean the entire goddamn Coalition doesn't want to do much with cons like us if it's unnecessary." replied Padlock 1-1, Captain Indra Lesmana, callsign 'Full House' thanks to his love for poker. Meanwhile, his conviction was because of a hit and run accident which caused a pregnant civilian woman to lost her life.

"Hey, they have a radar lock on us!" reported an Indian.

"Missile, evade, Blue on Blue! I repeat, Blue on Blue!" called AWACS Sipir.

"Indian fighters, do not attack, Shit! Those Jihadists must be flying our captured fighters!" cursed Steel Cage.

"And they might had spoofed the freaking IFF!!" Doni shouted on the mike while climbing vertically, before he executed a dive to evade the Derby missile fired by the Tejas formation.

"Who knows.. those people aren't our allies. All units, engage those fighters. Otherwise the assault force will be massacred!" barked Sipir.

"Steel Cage, we need to regroup!!" called another Indian pilot.

"Alright, all aircraft, head to the cloud, then regroup on Padlock 1 and Dumpster 1"

"I think they might be drones." Joseph stated. As the convicts done regrouping both AWACS then called their respective squadrons as following.

"I'll send you a new data, those Tejas fighters will be marked as enemies. Check your radar display. Then shoot them all down! Oh, and HQ confirmed that those things are indeed combat drones!" commanded Sipir.

"Will do, Dumpster 1-1 to all Indian unit, push to attack!"

"Roger that Sipir, we're engaging"

"I'm hit..." Then static.

Padlock 1-3 "Cymbal" vanished from radar.

"Cymbal's gone. He died a free man, people, pick up the pace and take down those planes!" called Sipir again.

At the same time Doni chased a Tejas and using his advantage in energy, he gained a good 35 degree lock on the fighter, then fired one of his AIM-9X.

Another Tejas tried to lock at him and fired its Derby, but he rolled and pumped chaff to confuse the missile, before fired a single long-range AIM-122 that it was unable to successfully dodge.

"Dumpster 1-3, Fox 2" called AWACS Steel Cage. "Splash one drone"

"Warning... new contacts coming at the high speed, and it's not manned aircraft!" said Sipir.

"New blips on radar! Looks like more drones!"

"Sounds not good." stated Baswedan.

"Steel Cage, tell us what's happening!" shouted an Indian pilot.

"Be patient, we're trying!" replied the Indian operator inside the Airbus A320 based aircraft.

"What we're gonna do, sir?" Joseph asked.

"What the hell is going on?" asked another Padlock pilot.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1" Flashes of orange bloomed near the PPDU formation and blanketed the sky.

"Son of a bitch!!" cursed an Indian.

"Mayday.. mayday.. lost all engines... "

"Shit, that shockwave!" shouted Sonny.

Sipir called the allied squadrons. "Be advised, we've just receive a transmission from joint forces HQ that those explosions are from a variant of Saegheh combat drones specifically filled to explode in a close proximity with aircraft. Basically an over-juiced and remote-controlled SAM without rocket engines. Wait a minute.. another wave incoming. Sending the predicted impact zone now."

"Damn, you're working quick today, Sipir." complimented Ahmad.

"Get too chatty and you will die!"

"Alright then.. Fox two!" Ahmad obtained a lock on two Tejas and fired two missiles that destroyed one and damaged another. Baswedan soon covered him as he dodged two Derby launches.

In the sudden, Doni caught a glimpse of a second enemy drone fighter launched two AA-11s straight at Baswedan from below, and he took the full hit of the R-73.

"Aw, snap!" Leaflet exclaimed.

"1-4 to Sipir. We lost Crown... he's now free."

Nothing they can do as the AWACS called for the countdown, and then the same explosion and the shockwave from the detonating drones.

"Don't get caught!" warned an Indian.

"How can they deploy this when they got allies in the airspace?" asked Sonny.

"There are few targets remaining. Destroy it all!" commanded Sipir.

"Fox two" called another Indian convict, downing a Tejas.

"Steel Cage here, exploding drones on radar, impact area has been plotted. All aircraft, scatter! 5..4..3..2..1, impact!"

The drones detonation once more sent shockwaves and shrapnel through the sky.

"Where are the attack came from?" asked Doni.

"Definitely Pakistan, where else?" this time an Indian replied on Doni's question.

"There must be someone guiding those things in!" cursed Ahmad.

"Hostile down!" called Sipir as Ahmad destroyed another drone. Meanwhile Doni dived down into a drone that was chasing an Indian Rafale, and dispatched it with his 25mm.

"Stick together and you'll make it." advised Steel Cage.

"Missile, evade!" Doni shouted as he saw Padlock 4-2 attempted to dodge two agile R-73s.

"No.. I.. "

Another one earned his freedom with his life as a price.

"Exploding drones inbound!" warned Sipir. "Prepare for impact!"

The shockwave was followed by silence. An Indian had destroyed the last Tejas drone.

"Steel Cage to all aircraft, be advised, the assault team has landed and safe from the drones, They are now reclaiming the glacier. The regular Indian Army and Air Force will take over from here."

"Cleared for RTB" called AWACS Sipir.

As the Indian and Indonesian convict pilots went separate ways to their bases, the controller thought to himself inside the Boeing 737 about the said intelligence mentioned by one of the convicts.

He can't easily dismissed his statement despite his status, and he have to act accordingly as the intel could explain the IFF spoofing incident they've just encountered.